


Voltron: Legendary Oneshots

by mukkiebee



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Multi, Other, a collection of one shots
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-09-21
Updated: 2017-09-20
Packaged: 2019-01-01 03:45:41
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,374
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12147930
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mukkiebee/pseuds/mukkiebee





	Voltron: Legendary Oneshots

Lance had a huge family – this much was obvious once you really thought about it. Being in a large family meant that you either spoke louder, or you didn’t get heard. Growing up, Lance learned from his siblings that you needed to be louder than the sibling next to you if you wanted the attention – this also worked the other way, of course, if you didn’t want the attention, speak quieter, let the sibling get the attention. Like if you were in trouble, never let yourself be alone with mama or papa, because inevitably their attention would be taken by another sibling if you held out long enough, then you’d be forgotten about.

Although, when this was put into practice at school, this meant that Lance stood out more – that Lance was considered the class clown. Even if sometimes the stupid questions he asked were because he genuinely didn’t understand, he took the title of ‘Class Clown’ with pride. Sometimes this got him in trouble with teachers, which got him sent to the office enough times that his mama would be called – though she wouldn’t be hard on him, because she understood that Lance couldn’t help his volume sometimes. Lance thought it was normal for someone to not understand when they were being too loud. He just got excited, and then his voice rose so he could be heard over the commotion of his siblings. He was so used to it, that it became second nature.

When Lance got into the Garrison, everything changed. He was still unable to control when he got louder than he probably should have – but he would get severely punished for not being quiet. So, Lance stopped talking as much, if he couldn’t control how loud he was, he could control if he spoke at all. That he could do. Then he became friends with Hunk, who was loud and funny, who pulled Lance out of the silence he had learned to take. Hunk would help him if he became too loud during normal conversations – he wasn’t mean though, he’d just grab his hand, and tap it once when he was being too loud. Lance grew accustomed to holding Hunk’s hand when they were in public, or sometimes in private when he was explaining something he was passionate or excited about.

Then Pidge was introduced to their duo, and they became a trio, but Pidge was less tolerable of his loudness – often snapped at him to shut up when he was getting too loud. So, he retreated again – started talking less until Hunk berated Pidge about being nicer to Lance – he didn’t know when he was being too loud, you just have to tell him he’s getting loud. Feeling guilty, Pidge helped Lance come back out of his shell. Sometimes he still snapped at Lance – but it was only when he had a headache or was too tired to remember to be nice.

Then Shiro came back. They went to space. Without realizing it, Lance fell back into being the comedic relief, sometimes going further and letting the others take their frustrations out on him. Lance was still loud, and what some would call ‘obnoxious.’ Hunk couldn’t hold his hand constantly – Pidge couldn’t always be around to tell him gently that he was being too loud. Lance felt suffocated by the others, and attempted to compensate that by being louder. Although, sometimes he was yelled at for being too loud, and Lance would clam up for a while, before opening back up and speaking out again.

It was only so long before the team would reach their limits. It didn’t start all at once – nothing ever did with these sorts of things. It began when they were on a mission and Lance needed to get an idea across to Shiro, but he was currently speaking with Pidge and Hunk about something or another – probably directing them to do something amazing, but Lance needed to get the idea to Shiro right now. So, he got carried away, feeling distressed that he was being ignored in favor of the Green and Yellow Paladins – he still needed to get the idea to Shiro before something happened. He didn’t know what, but he had a feeling. It didn’t take long for his voice to be heard – Lance knew the exact moment that Shiro turned his attention to him rather than the other two Paladins. “What, Lance? What? Stop yelling,” it was nice enough, but the way Shiro had spoken over the com made Lance reel back – to notice that he was being annoying. His throat closed up as it had when he first started at the Garrison. He cleared his throat, and began explaining his idea – probably too quiet, but he didn’t dare to speak louder.

After that, Lance noticed it more and more. He noticed the annoyed looks that would be shared amongst the others when he began speaking – he noticed it so much that he started trailing off when he saw that the others weren’t really interested in what he was saying. Even Hunk seemed to be annoyed – he still entertained him, still allowed Lance to speak, and when they were allowed down time and they hung out, Hunk would hold his hand. Lance felt the tap against his hand more and more often as the days went by, though.

One night, as he sat in front of Blue, Lance decided he would stop talking so much. Only spoke if spoken too. “They get annoyed,” Lance said, obviously distressed about the situation. His Lion knelt and rest her head near Lance’s figure, which sat in front of her paws. “I don’t want to annoy them, I want them to be able to stand being around me. So, I’ll just stop talking. That’s a good idea, isn’t it?” He asked, looking up at his Blue. Blue grumbled in response – she didn’t like the fact that her Paladin was in distress. She didn’t like that her cub was being treated how he was – and began talking to the other Lions after that night with her cub. They agreed that Team Voltron needed to treat the Blue Paladin with more care. They didn’t know how to convey that to their respective cubs, but whenever they could, they tried to communicate ideas to one another.

To the others, Lance’s silence was a relief. At first, anyway, it seemed to them that Lance was actually taking being a Paladin seriously, so they were relieved that the Blue Paladin had begun to speak less. No one noticed – at first – that their Blue Paladin only spoke when spoken too. Everyone noticed it differently – Shiro, Keith, and Allura noticed it the most because they didn’t speak to Lance first very often. They did, but it wasn’t like Pidge, Hunk, or even Coran spoke to him. Hunk noticed it more as days went by and the Blue Paladin didn’t come to him as often as he used to – if at all. He brushed it off, though, assuming he would come to Hunk when he needed him.

Pidge noticed it because Lance stopped coming to force her to go to her room at night, though, she noticed that when she falls asleep working on something, she wakes up back in her room. So, Lance still checks on her, just not when she’s awake, so she brushed it off.

Allura noticed it because the flirting abruptly stopped – all at once, the flirting just stopped. She was so relieved that it stopped, she didn’t notice that Lance had stopped speaking unless spoken to.

Keith noticed it because of the lack of arguments he was getting into – though, he was glad that Lance was taking this whole thing more seriously, so he didn’t want to question it.

Shiro noticed – slowly, but he noticed. Lance stopped yelling over the others when he had an idea, which, admittedly most of them were rather good, and helped them. Instead, Lance stayed silent with his ideas – sometimes sharing them if he was asked to, but otherwise he didn’t speak much besides when they were in the heat of battle and they needed to communicate.

Coran noticed right away. He noticed how Lance had stopped going to him when he needed to talk to someone, he noticed when Lance obviously wanted to provide input into the conversation happening around him, but had to sometimes physically stop himself from doing so. He bit his fingernails much more often – which Coran found slightly worrying. He didn’t bring up his concerns to the others – hoping that Lance would come to him when he needed to. He enjoyed when Lance spoke – as he himself was a loud and boisterous person, he enjoyed having someone around who was the same. This person before him may look like Lance, but he wasn’t Lance. Gone was the enthusiastic boy who told him all about Cuba, and Earth, and his family, replaced by this shell.

One day they couldn’t form Voltron, and that’s when they knew something was seriously wrong with Lance. Though, they didn’t come to that conclusion at first. “Why didn’t you form Voltron?” Allura’s voice cut through their cockpits, disturbing their shocked silence.

“I don’t know, Princess,” Shiro responded for the team, “we did everything like normal.”

“Well, you need to because Zarkon won’t wait for you to be able to form Voltron – he’ll attack whenever he feels like it. So, get on it!” Allura snapped, reminding the Paladin’s of when they were first learning how to form the giant weapon. They decided to return to the Castle to talk through what was different.

When they entered the common area, Coran was waiting for them. He wasn’t planning on saying anything right away, he wanted to see if the other Paladin’s would be able to pinpoint exactly what was wrong.

Instead of talking, arguing ensued. Lance observed the entire thing, feeling guilt eat him alive. Everyone was blaming each other – not noticing that Lance was breaking on the inside because he knew it was his fault. Little did he know, it wasn’t his fault at all. The Lions had finally come up with an idea that they could do without doing any real damage – refuse to form Voltron until they paid attention to the Paladin in distress, and helped him.

Coran had enough when they refused to see what was right in front of them. “Silence!!” The ginger man yelled, narrowing his eyes at the Paladins of Voltron. “You call yourselves a team, don’t you?” At everyone’s nod – except Lance, Coran noted – he continued, “What kind of team neglects a team member to the point they stop talking entirely?!” He asked, glaring at each of them. The four guilty Paladins looked amongst each other, before turning their attention to the Blue Paladin. Lance stared at Coran with wide eyes, feeling heat crawl up the back of his neck. He cleared his throat, and avoided the stares of his teammates. “You were all busy being idiots and ignoring the fact that Lance stopped talking almost entirely that you didn’t notice that he had stopped talking almost entirely. You are a disgrace of a team, and until you resolve this, I fear the Lions will continue to refuse to form Voltron.”

Each of the Lions purred at the statement that Coran had given them, agreeing with him whole heartedly. They fed images into their heads of all the times that they had taken Lance talking for granted – and images into their heads of all the times they had rolled their eyes when Lance had begun speaking. The team stood in shock as all the times they ignored him came rushing to the forefront of their minds.

Lance decided that he couldn’t handle it, and attempted to sneak out – only to be stopped by Coran, “My boy, you need to stay and let them apologize or make it up to you.” Lance nodded, although he felt like throwing up.

When they all finally were allowed back to the present, surprisingly, Keith was the first one to hug and apologize to him. “Man, I’m so sorry,” he said, squeezing him tightly. “I know that – heck, I don’t know how to word this, just know that I’m sorry for treating you like that.”

Lance swallowed thickly, and pat his back, “Uh, yeah..” he murmured quietly as he pulled away, only to be pulled into a hug from Hunk – no one encompassed his entire body while hugging him like Hunk did.

“Buddy! I’m sorry I made you think I was annoyed, I’m sorry! You’re my best bud, you shouldn’t feel like that with me!” Hunk said, sobbing onto his shoulder as he hugged his best friend.

Lance sniffled, hugging him back tightly, “It’s okay Hunk, I forgive you.”

Hunk pulled away, but didn’t stray too far, planning on taking him away once everyone hugged and asked for forgiveness. Pidge was up next, who hugged him like the last two had, “I’m sorry, Lance. I forgot to take in your feelings when we got into space, I was too focused on finding my brother and father. I’m sorry,” she said, looking up at who she had come to know as a brother.

“I understand, Pidgeon,” Lance said softly, “I know I would feel the same.”

Pidge nodded, and then moved away to make room for Shiro to hug him. “I’m sorry, Lance, I should pay attention to all of our team mates rather than brushing you off because you were being loud. I’m sorry for not taking your ideas to heart sometimes.”

Lance swallowed thickly, nodding. He was unable to find the words.

Allura’s apology came later, when Lance still didn’t speak much around her, feeling like she would yell at him like she had so many times before – the only reason that Allura even apologized was because the others noticed the difference in Lance’s behavior when she entered the room. It was a lot of work to get Lance to where he was before they were launched into space, but it was easier once they knew the signs to look for when he was feeling down. They were a family – the only family they would have for a long time.


End file.
